obama and the republican speaker of the house talked this over today and here's major garrett at the white house. major? >> reporter: scott, there is a code of silence the white house and speaker boehner's try to apply to these phone conversations, releasing as few details as possible to protect the underlying negotiations. nevertheless, cbs news has learned the following: the speaker and the president spoke before treasury secretary geithner's comments about going over the cliff. the conversation was described as brief, meaning shorter than the 28-minute conversation speaker boehner and the president had last week. also those familiar with the conversation tell me-- or do not used words like "curt," "frank" and "direct" meaning it was probably more gentle. also i'm told scott this is no longer a time for check-in phone calls between these two leaders. everything now is substantive about the underlying merit of what treasury secretary geithner. republicans believe this can be done through tax loopholes not raising rates on the wealthiest americans. >> pelley: we asked chip reid to vi